Engagement and driving alignment to strategy

Someone asked me yesterday “So how do we drive employee engagement? What causes that to happen?”

Off the cuff, my answer focused on 4 things:
1) having a compelling vision and
2) truly effective leadership
3) clarity of what is unacceptable about the current state
4) an idea of how you’re going to get there.

Aside from change management 101, it’s also important that you create processes that break through the operational focus that pulls people away from strategic considerations. You want your people engaged in their operational functions, but while keeping the strategic context in mind. This is most effectively achieved through a combination of leadership and process.